New Zealand: shake and bake

I am sorry to say that Christchurch, New Zealand has been hit by yet another larger earthquake. I hold this place near and dear to my heart as I studied there last fall. There was one large earthquake while I was down there, a 7.1. However, Christchurch got lucky then and no one died, and there were only a few buildings with major major damage. This earthquake was only a 6.3, but much closer to the city center, and during lunch time. There are so far 75 reported deaths and still hundreds reported missing. Many buidings have been destroyed, including the iconic cathedral in the middle of the city.

The only explanation for these large earthquakes is that the god Ruaumoko is up and walking around the underworld. Ruaumoko is the son of Mother Papa and the god or earthquakes. For the sake of all of my friends and everyone else in New Zealand, I would appreciate it if Ruaumoko would stop walking around and just lay down for a long, long nap already!

Childhood hero

When I was a young whipper snapper, I idolized Aladdin.

That guy was definitely my hero growing up. Not only does he have a pet monkey, he gets to ride around on a flying carpet wherever he wants to go. He defeats Jafar and saves the girl. He goes on his adventure into the bowels of the sand tiger, takes the risk, and comes out with a deeper understanding of things, aka the Genie. I was trying to decide which type of hero this is according to Campbell. Campbell says there are two types of heroes. The first hero sets out responsibly and intentionally on an adventure, "the father quest"g. The second kind is where the adventure and deed are just thrown at the hero. Aladdin went into the cave intentionally to get the lamp for the crusty old man (secretly Jafar), but he ended up in a much bigger adventure than what he planned for.

Singles Awareness Day

Today is Valentine's day, in case you didn't know this already. Being the single guy that I am, meaning I am not out on a fancy date tonight, I decided to check out the mythologies behind Valentine's day. It started as a holiday to celebrate the Christian Martyr Saint Valentine in 496 AD and was created by Pope Gelasius I. Saint Valentine is not just one guy, apparently many martyrs back in the day were named Valentine. The original holiday was not even about love like it is today, it was simply to celebrate a martyr.
This is all very interesting, but I decided to get more mythological when researching it. The obvious choice here is Cupid.

Cupid is the son of Venus and Mars. He is perceived today as a cute, slightly chubby angel that shoots people with his magic arrows and makes them fall in love. However, I found out something new. In the stories, Cupid was said to carry two arrows, one with a gold tip and one with a lead tip. The gold tip made the recipient fall in love with the next person he or she laid eyes on. The lead tip invoked hatred in the recipient. Apparently, Cupid was a mischievous little bugger and he would shoot one person with the gold tip, and whoever they fell in love with received the lead tip arrow. The creates quite the conundrum. Doesn't it always seem like you go for the person who doesn't want anything to do with you, or the person you can't have? Or is that just me? At least Cupid is keeping love interesting. If you think about it, Cupid is just making sure business stays good. If everyone fell in love and the world was "perfect", he would have no one left to shoot.

Is our society matrifocal?

I am reviewing my notes for the quiz, and I came across the term matrifocal- which by our class definition means mommy-focused. It got me thinking about society today and how it is moving towards this in a way. I love my mother dearly, and I make sure to tell her that every time I talk to her (otherwise she gets upset). However, this term matrifocal, it makes me think that society as a whole is more feminine. In these societies, there is no fighting, everyone gets along, and genders are equal. I am all for equality of genders and I am not promoting violence. However, I am raising a point about the men in these societies.
One of my heroes is my friends dad Tom. He took me and my friends outdoors all the time and on great adventures anywhere from hunting trips to ski trips to backpacking trips, all based on the ideas from the book Wild At Heart. This book talks about how society today is feminizing men, and how there are very few real men left in society. By this, I mean that society is expecting men to be calm and reserved, have a steady day to day desk job, dress nice and be clean cut. (keep in mind this is a brief generalization) According to the book, there are three things that define a man 1) a man needs a battle to fight 2) a beauty to rescue 3) and an adventure to live. Now, I know this seems like some sort of childhood fantasy about a knight kicking butt and rescuing the damsel in the tower, but think about it in modern terms. Modern society seems to have taken the real excitement out of a guys life, and turned most of the men into city (sissy) boys. (I know that in Montana, this is far less prevalent than other places in the country)
This is something that made sense to me and angered me in a way. I am not blaming this solely on women, but society as a whole. However, it does seem that in a matrifocal, or mommy-focused society, that all of the men would be feminized. Are boys who were raised with a solid father figure different from boys who were raised only by their mothers?
Again, I am all for gender equality, but I feel we should move away from the matrifocal society and let men be men, and go on adventures and get into some trouble.

Winter Wonderland

I love snow. It is an addiction comparable to cocaine. So how come all the snow comes while I can't enjoy it? The most I can do is stare longingly out the window and dream of the waist deep blower pow up at Bridger. What did I do to anger the snow god? Why does he/she hate me and rub the snow in my face (and not in a good way)? Why can I never get snow to come when it is convenient for me? You know the saying "It's puking snow", well I feel like I am actually getting puked on by the snow god.
Granted, I would have no problem skipping some classes to go shred (Charity, no offense when you read this), but I always have something important going on (class is important too) when the snow comes. For instance, today I had a job interview and this weekend I had to leave town. I had the choice to schedule the interview for today at 1, or tomorrow morning, and I chose today. So Bozeman, because of my scheduling choice, you are welcome for the heaps of snow. Ill keep you posted on my future plans to leave town so you will know when to head up to Bridger, because I guarantee when I am gone, we will get puked on again with snow.

This does raise a question, do you think the snow god is a god or goddess?

BOOM!...The End

On monday in class, we were asked to think about what we think the end of the world will be like. Personally, I think it will happen with a large eruption of some sort, like this one here:

This eruption could even happen in our own backyards.

Personally, if the world IS going to end, I would want it to happen this way, that way we have a front row seat to the action! If a super volcano like yellowstone erupts, the earth will be toast anyway, so why not see the amazing show and have one last awesome image before we go? I think a large eruption is fitting because it would then wipe out the world with fire, followed by famine, just like in the recent Hindu myth "The Creation, Death, and Rebirth of the Universe". In that myth, Shiva wipes out all life on earth with fire. Fire is prevalent in other myths for this same reason. So come time for the alarm on the world's life clock to go off, I say we sit back and enjoy the fireworks with our close friends and a case of PBR.